


Daniel in Wonderland

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-26
Updated: 2008-12-26
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:07:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11855976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: Daniel falls through a quantum mirror into a strange and disturbing reality





	Daniel in Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

When they found the second quantum mirror, Sam wanted to leave it where it was, just leave it and forget that they ever found it. She was very clear about that.

Daniel pointed out that if they could find it, so could all kinds of people—and things—that they’d rather didn’t. It hadn’t been difficult to convince Sam. She’d known that already—even if she wished she didn’t. He could tell that she really, really wanted to leave it there.

Teal’c suggested that they destroy it. That actually seemed like a pretty good idea. After all, General Hammond ordered the last one destroyed. It was almost certain that General Landry would follow precedent and have this one destroyed, too. Daniel wasn’t in favor of that sort of thing, generally, but in this case, he had been more than willing to consider it.

The only one who disagreed was Vala, and she disagreed strenuously. She thought it was much too valuable to waste, and that they should sell it to the highest bidder—among their friends, of course. Daniel let that go, because she kept those kinds of comments to a minimum these days. 

Mitchell had been very quiet while they were talking about what to do. After listening to the argument go back and forth for a while, he’d brought up the alternate teams that had showed up through the Stargate, and reminded everyone just how difficult it had been to send them back. Damn him. He also reminded them that even if the Ori were dead, their followers weren’t—and that if things got really bad, well, even “more really bad”, they might need to find a solution where they’d rather not. Daniel hadn’t wanted to agree with him, but he had to admit that Mitchell was right.

They couldn’t leave it. They couldn’t destroy it. As much as they might regret it, they had to take it back. This time, it would stay on the base where they could keep an eye on it. At least this time, they found the control device with it. 

That was how Daniel ended up in a small utility closet looking at a quantum mirror. The location was out of the way, the room was too small to be otherwise useful and, as of that morning, it had multiple surveillance cameras, and a very heavy door.

Vala was making an otherwise simple task more difficult than it had to be. Her behavior had improved a lot since she had first showed up on the base, but she still didn’t have enough to occupy her time. It made her annoying. Frequently.

Daniel had been talking to General Landry about ways that she could be more useful when the team wasn’t offworld, but other than the occasional undercover mission, they had drawn a blank, which is how Vala happened to be standing behind him holding the control device.

“What does this button do, Daniel?”

“No! Don’t—” He swung away from the mirror and reached out for the device, overextending himself while trying to grab it before her finger hit the button. That wouldn’t have been such a bad thing if Vala hadn’t also turned, in an effort to hold onto the device, and knocked her shoulder into him. The control device slipped from both their grasps and went hurtling through the air. Unbalanced, Daniel put out a hand behind him instinctively...where the mirror was. The last thing he heard was the sound of a small object hitting the wall.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Daniel regained his balance and found himself in a room very like the one that he had left, except that there was no control device—and the mirror wasn’t showing his SGC anymore. It was showing some kind of storage facility. The window between realities must have changed when the device hit the wall. Not good … It might not even be working properly; it hit the wall pretty hard. On the plus side, he was alone, and there were no cameras. 

Staring at the mirror hopefully had no effect, although he tried that for a long time. There was no change. No view of his own reality appeared. He crouched down and leaned against a wall for a while. When that got too boring, he paced. Finally, he had to admit to himself that the device must have been damaged. Vala would have gone for help long before now, and he didn’t think it would take this long for Sam to find him.

He moved to the door and tried the handle. To his surprise, it opened. How very convenient. Not secure, but convenient… He opened the door a crack and peered into the hall. Still on level 19... No Goa’uld, no priors, no replicators… So far, so good. Maybe he’d lucked into an SGC that wasn’t in imminent danger of destruction—or not. He wasn’t going to count on it.

Easing the door open, he slipped into the hall. Getting the control device was his first priority, but to do that he was going to have to talk to someone. He wanted some idea of what kind of place this was before he did that. Security seemed more than a little lax, he could tell that already. The threat level must be very low. Maybe he’d find the device just lying around. His mouth turned up in a wry smile. That would be way too easy. One thing he knew about quantum mirrors, they never seemed to send you anywhere nice. None of the alternate SG-1’s had come from pleasant, peaceful places, and he sure hadn’t found one when he’d gone through the mirror that other time.

Sam’s lab—that was the first place to look. If the device was anywhere that he would be able to find it, it would be in Sam’s lab, and if he ran into Sam, that would probably be okay, too. The Sams from alternate universes had been pretty reasonable, once you got past the usual scientific doubt; maybe this one would be too. Besides, he might be stuck on this level—there was a good chance that his keycard wouldn’t work on the elevator. There was no way that security could be so lax that he wouldn’t need one, this was still Cheyenne Mountain. 

He took his keycard from his pocket and tried it on the lock at the stairs. No luck. He didn’t find that surprising given the complexity of the cryptographic algorithms used in the cards. Still, it was disappointing. At least this was a good level on which to be stuck—if you had to be stuck… 

Daniel thought about stopping at the armory, but decided against it. He’d better make sure he wasn’t dead here before he went traipsing in, asking for a weapon--and they wouldn’t exactly be handing those out unless he could come up with a pretty good reason. ‘I’m from another reality and feeling kind of twitchy’ wasn’t going to cut it. 

He moved quickly through the halls, which were surprisingly empty. His SGC was a hive of activity, with upwards of a hundred people on duty even in the latest hours. If time was the same, it was only about 14:00 hours. This SGC was barely populated. He saw one airman get in an elevator, but apart from that, he saw no one.

Damn! Sam—a Sam—was in her lab. He wouldn’t be able to search for the device, or even have a look around to see if they were working on something creepy and genocidal.   
He had to do something. Eventually someone was going to come by and wonder why Dr. Jackson was lurking outside the lab with his back against the wall. Time to bite the bullet. Daniel knocked on the frame of the open door.

“Uh, hi… I don’t know if—” 

“Oh, hi Daniel. That’s a new look. More subtle than some.” She gave him a grin.

New? Subtle? “Sorry, what?” His eyebrows rose.

Sam, well, AU-Sam, narrowed her eyes and looked at him more closely. “Wait, you’re not ‘our’ Daniel, are you? You must have come through the quantum mirror.”

Daniel nodded, relieved that he wasn’t going to have to explain the existence of alternate universes. That was always awkward. “Does that happen a lot?”

“More often than you’d think. That’s why we don’t lock the door any more. It’s almost always you, and you’re hardly ever a threat to us. Except when you’re military, and General O’Neill is an archeologist. Sometimes that’s not so good.” 

“Jack—an archeologist?”

“You find that odder than you being in the military?”

“Yes! No… I don’t know.” He rubbed his forehead. “If I could just borrow your control device…”

“Sorry, first we have to debrief you. Protocol, you know.” She left the project she was working on. It had a lot of blinking lights, but no obvious function. “Follow me, please.”

They left the lab and moved toward the nearest elevator.

“I guess I must be alive here. You don’t seem surprised to see me.”

“Oh, yes. Right now, anyway.”

That didn’t sound good. “You’ve defeated the Goa’uld?”

Sam nodded “And the replicators. We think we’ve killed the Ori, but their armies are still a problem.”

“No differences there. We’re in the same position.”

They reached the elevator and she pushed the button. “The most common difference seems to be the instances.”

“Instances?”

“We experience persistent anomalies that seem to be unique to our universe. Dr. Felger theorized that it’s some kind of quantum bubble affecting the fabric of our reality, a distortion of some kind. I think that’s a bunch of hooey, but something changes who we are, and how we perceive ourselves, on a basic level. We call the periods of instability ‘instances’. Frankly, it’s easier to show you than to explain.”

Okay, that made no sense. Daniel decided to take her at her word and wait to see what happened. It sounded like something big was going on here, but if Sam couldn’t understand something about physics, he probably wasn’t going to figure it out.

The elevator door opened to reveal a Marine who was strangely reluctant to move aside to allow Daniel to enter the elevator. That was odd, and the marine kept sneering at him. Very odd—and more than a little irritating. Daniel turned to face the Marine and stared back with a frown, which got an even stranger reaction. The Marine looked shocked and got off at the next floor. What kind of response had he been expecting? Daniel frowned at the closing door. 

When the door opened on level 27, he was greeted by an unnerving sight. It was himself, carrying an enormous pile of books. The hallway was suddenly full of people and his other self bumped into at least half of them before tripping over his own feet and sending books flying through the air. Daniel winced and bit his lip. 

As his other self scrambled to retrieve the books, Daniel could see that he was covered in bruises and had a large bandage on his leg. His condition didn’t seem to be bothering him, though. He bounded up to them and started talking excitedly to Sam. “We have to go to P3C-278, Sam! I know there’s a Jaffa base there, and the atmosphere is toxic, but look!” 

He put the books down on the floor and pulled a UAV image out of the pile. “It’s an obelisk! I don’t know what it says, but it might be important!” His other self wasn’t so much showing the image to Sam as waving it wildly in the air. One hand smacked Daniel in the head. 

“Oh, Sorry! Hey, you’re me… Tell me all about your reality—it might be important.”

Sam interrupted. “We’re on our way to the briefing room, we’ll meet you there.”

“Okay!” He picked up his stack of books and bounded away again.

Daniel leaned toward Sam with a frown. “What’s wrong with him? Does he have brain damage?” 

“Wrong? Nothing’s wrong. That’s all part of this instance, and not the worst part.”

The other ‘Daniel’ had almost reached the end of the hall when a light fixture fell out of the ceiling directly on him, trailing live, sparking wires. 

Sam gave a sigh and looked at Daniel. “That’s the worst part. Let’s get him to the infirmary”

Luckily, the electrical current ceased just as they reached the unconscious other ‘Daniel’. He couldn’t help thinking of himself as the ‘real’ Daniel. It was egotistical, but it was hard to take his other self seriously and even harder to think of him as an alternate version of himself. He picked up the injured ‘Daniel’ in a fireman’s carry and headed toward the infirmary. “So, this happens a lot?”

“Constantly, but don’t worry. He’ll be fine. He’s always fine.”

Once they got to the infirmary, and Daniel lowered the unconscious man to a bed, Sam seemed to forget what she had said about this ‘Daniel’ being fine. She held his hand with an intensity usually reserved for the dying.

“What has occurred?” Teal’c arrived at the infirmary, without being called and stood at the end of the bed. 

Teal’c seemed pretty normal. That was a relief. “He was—” 

Without turning away from Sam, Teal’c raised a hand to silence Daniel.

“Daniel brought our ‘Daniel’ to the infirmary—he was hit on the head and electrocuted.”

“Is ‘Daniel Jackson’ seriously injured?”

Daniel tried again. “He doesn’t—”

The hand came up again. This time there was a sneer to go along with it. 

“Is there a problem?” Daniel lifted an eyebrow.

Teal’c turned back to the man on the bed. “Ours is the only reality of consequence.”

“I could say the same, but it wouldn’t be polite.” 

Teal’c ignored him and moved to Sam’s side.

The man on the bed stirred. “Jaaack…”

Sam leaned forward. “He’s not here right now, Daniel. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

‘Daniel’ nodded weakly and tried to smile.

Jack came running into the room and to the alternate’s bedside. That was a big surprise—Daniel would have expected Jack to be in Washington. He was hardly ever in Colorado Springs anymore, but he was here now, ruffling ‘Daniel’s’ hair.

“Hey, Danny. You okay?”

“F-fine… ‘m fine…” 

His alternate held onto Jack’s hand like a lifeline. They were being awfully dramatic about what appeared to be a relatively minor injury. Maybe it was a cumulative thing—‘Daniel’ was really beat up. 

Daniel raised a hand. “Excuse me… Uh, I really have to get out of here. About that control device, I—”

Shaking her head, Sam pointed at the other ‘Daniel’. “Sorry, we can’t leave him, he needs us.”

“If you could just tell me where it is, I could—” 

“It’s in Daniel’s office, but you’ll have to wait for one of us to take you there.”

Suddenly the faces of everyone in the room blurred. Jack disappeared—that was unnerving. The man on the bed… transformed. That was the only way to describe it. The other ‘Daniel’ hadn’t been small, he’d been the same height as Daniel, and built like a hockey player, but this new ‘Daniel’ was huge. Daniel had never been exactly slight. He’d started out pretty much like the ‘Daniel’ on the bed, and he’d been working out for years now. He knew it showed. His new alternate self was larger—much, much, larger—and armed to the teeth.

Daniel must have looked stunned, because Sam smiled at him. “This is one of those rare instances that I was talking about.” She was wearing a TAC vest now, and had a P-90 clipped to her chest, not to mention grenades in her pockets and an M-6 slung over one shoulder. “It won’t last long.”

The heavily muscled, black-clad ‘Daniel’ swung his feet off the bed. “I’m fine. Let’s go fight the Ori.”

Daniel gave a little wave. “Sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if I could borrow one of your zats… or maybe an intar?”

“Sure.” Giant ‘Daniel’ gave him a zat. “Is it an incursion?”

Everyone blurred again, and Daniel put the zat in his pocket in case this instance didn’t prove to be as free with weaponry. This was strange enough that being armed seemed like a good plan—just in case. He looked at the new team and gave a little sigh of relief. They all looked pretty normal. He took that as a good sign. 

Sam was staring at him and the other ‘Daniel’, with a weird look on her face, but at least no one was bleeding or deformed. Jack was still gone and Teal’c was… Teal’c. Daniel wondered why Teal’c didn’t seem to change as much as the others. He was being awfully quiet, though…

Daniel raised his eyebrows and tried to get Sam’s attention. “So, the control device?” She seemed to have forgotten about the debriefing. He wasn’t going to remind her.

Sam moved to stand next to the alternate ‘Daniel’, but kept staring at Daniel. “Do you really have to go so quickly? We could order some pizza and watch movies. Or go shopping!” 

“Well, I’d kind of like to avoid the entropic cascade failure, and I don’t know how long it will take to find my reality, so yeah, I really do. And Big ‘Daniel’ was right—there are Ori out there that we have to do something about, in both our universes.” 

Daniel hoped this Sam wouldn’t remember that he had forty-eight hours before there’d be a problem. He hadn’t even been here for two and he knew he didn’t want to stay any longer than necessary. 

She sighed and shifted her attention to the ‘Daniel’ beside her, who was completely oblivious. He’d pulled a book out of his pocket and was reading, while mumbling in Abydonian. His verb usage was completely… wrong. Okay, this was starting to get disturbing. “Sam? The Ori?”

“We don’t really fight the Ori that much. Mostly we just talk, or eat pie.”

“You… eat pie? You don’t look for weapons to use against Adria, or try to help the worlds the Ori have taken?” Daniel took off his glasses and cleaned them vigorously. They weren’t that dirty, but he was getting increasingly irritated, and he thought he’d better not say anything for a minute. He took a deep breath and put his glasses back on. “Don’t you think that’s a little—” 

Sam wasn’t listening to him. She was holding on to ‘Daniel’s’ arm and leaning on him. ‘Daniel’ only noticed that he was having trouble turning the page.

The world changed again. This time, everything was the same, except alternate ‘Daniel’ had noticed Sam’s attention. He tossed the book on the bed and stared back. And now he was touching. Oh, good… That wasn’t embarrassing at all. Nothing uncomfortable about watching yourself grope one of your best friends. “What say we go get that device now? Please? I just can’t stress enough how much I’d like to do that.”

Other ‘Daniel’ tore himself away from… what he was doing, and nodded. “Okay, I can understand you needing to get back. I’m sure you have… good reasons to want to hurry back. He turned back to Sam and stared into her eyes, then led them from the room.

Just as they got on the elevator, ‘Daniel’ disappeared and Jack appeared in his place. 

“No, damn it! I have to get to level 18!”

Jack looked at him with a grin. “What’s your hurry, Danny-Boy? It’s time for pie.” He pushed the button for level 22 then turned his attention to Sam. He was as, uh… interested in her as the now-missing ‘Daniel’. Was that was better, or worse? Neither, actually. It was absolutely every bit as uncomfortable, if not quite as surreal. 

“I don’t have time for pie! I have to get to ’Daniel’s’ office.”

“There’s always time for pie!”

“I don’t think you appreciate how much—”

“Daniel! Pie!”

Oh, God… Okay, he’d eat pie, but then he was getting that device, one way or another.

The pie and coffee both turned out to be really good. Urgo-good. He wondered why, but couldn’t resist a second piece. He was uncomfortably reminded of Persephone in the underworld—without the reproductive metaphor, of course. 

He’d kept his eyes on his plate the entire time, and consequently had seen nothing disconcerting for the last fifteen minutes. He laid down his fork. “Well, that was great pie, I admit, but now I really have to get to ‘Daniel’s’ office.” He raised his eyes. Mistake—big mistake. 

He launched himself toward the exit. He’d find another way to get to level 18. This was so not worth it.

Vala stepped into the doorway and blocked his path. She was wearing a great deal of leather and a very disturbing smile. “Want some company, handsome?”

Oh, no… Seriously, no... Not in this universe. “Uh, not really. I’m just on my way to level 18. I’m in a bit of a hurry.” He tried to side-step her, but she moved to block his path again then reached out to wrap her arms around his waist. 

“Are you sure? It’s not like we haven’t had fun in your office before.” She leaned against him.

He tried to pull her arms away. “No, we haven’t! Sorry, but you seem to have me confused with a different ‘Daniel’. I guarantee you that we have had no ‘fun’.” He was still trying to disentangle himself when she suddenly dropped her arms and stepped back.

“Oh, you’re one of those dreary, prudish, alternate Daniels! That’s no fun, and I’m so veeeery bored.” She put her hands on her hips, frowned at him, and then smiled slowly. “Not all of them are dull, though. Once in a while, not often, but once in a while—” She paused with another one of those alarming smiles. “I’ll take you to level 18, then boring Daniel will be gone, and amusing Daniel can arrive.”

Daniel could have pointed out that he didn’t have to leave for another ‘Daniel’ to arrive, but he didn’t, and he rather doubted that many of the alternate ‘Daniel’s’ were sufficiently amusing for this Vala—a depressing number of them weren’t sufficiently alive. He rushed her to the elevator as fast as possible. He had to get to level 18 before Vala changed or disappeared. 

She didn’t appreciate being dragged down the hallway to the elevator by her arm, but although she was complaining loudly, she got on, ran her keycard through, and pushed the button for level 18.

Collapsing against the side of the elevator, Daniel closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Thank God.

“Are we as different as all that?”

Daniel opened his eyes to find Vala looking at him curiously. “Oh, yes. So very different…”

“And you find us unbearable.”

Well, sort of, yes. “No, not exactly.... This… just isn’t my SGC. You aren’t the people I know. You aren’t what.... You’re not—”

“We’re not your friends.” 

“No.” He gave her a tired smile. “I miss them. Being with people who look like them, but aren’t—it makes it worse. I want to go home.” As the doors opened, he stepped off the elevator.

She frowned and nodded. “Good luck, Daniel.” The doors started to close. 

“Wait! I need to get back—” The elevator was gone. “—to level 19.” He took off his glasses and covered his face with his hands. Daniel in Wonderland. Oh, crap. Well, he’d have to worry about that later. He put his glasses on and headed to his office.

There was a ‘Daniel’ in there. This must be where he went when Jack appeared. He was sitting in the dark. The desk lamp was on, but his chair was pushed back so that his face was hidden in shadow.

“Hi… Are you… all right?” Daniel knew that when he sat in the dark, he wasn’t in a happy place.

“None of it means anything.”

“None of what?”

“I tried. It just goes away.”

“Okay, that just doesn’t make sense.”

“You can't get it back.”

“That kind of depends on what it is.”

“You don't even know what I'm talking about.”

“No. No I don't. But you could explain it to me.” Quickly would be good. He really wanted to go home, but he didn’t want to leave ‘Daniel’ alone like this.

‘Daniel’ leaned forward, the desk lamp illuminating his face. “You shouldn’t be here.” He reached into his top drawer.

“No, I really shouldn’t.”

“Take this. Leave it in the mirror room. I’ll get it later.” He reached over and put a small object in Daniel’s hand—the control device.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to leave you alone when you’re feeling so—”

‘Daniel’ waved a hand. “When are we not alone, really…”

Uh, wow. That was… existential. Daniel was pretty sure he never went there, but he did wonder if it was creepy that he could relate more to this ‘Daniel’ than the others he’d met so far. Yeah, it was kind of creepy… He’d better think about that a bit, but not until he got home. Now it was really time to go. “Well, if you’re sure that you’re going to be okay… You know, they have some great pie and coffee down in the commissary. Why don’t you take a break?”

“Coffee… I could use some coffee.”

“It’s really good. We could share the elevator—I could use some help getting to level 19, anyway. I don’t have a keycard.”

‘Daniel’ pushed his chair back and they headed to the elevator. “Okay... The pie was good?”

“Really good.” Daniel pushed the ‘down’ button.

“What kind did you have?

“Peach.” The doors opened and they entered. Daniel was a bit worried that this was too easy, which said a lot about his day. It shouldn’t be hard to take an elevator down one floor.

“Ah. I like peach, too. I’ll try that.” ‘Daniel’ swiped his card and pushed 19 and 22 with an air of exhaustion. A minute later the door opened on level 19. “Good luck. I hope you get it back. I think you might…”

“Thanks. I hope you get it back too.” Daniel stepped out onto level 19. 

The doors closed as ‘Daniel’ gave him a sad smile.

Well. That was different. He shook off the dark mood that the other ‘Daniel’ carried with him. Things were good. He was on level 19. Finally—in a few more minutes, he’d be back at the quantum mirror with the control device. He could go home.

Suddenly the air was filled with the sound of a blaring klaxon and the announcement of an unscheduled offworld activation. He heard Walter’s voice calling all personnel into position. The hallway filled with marines, some still pulling on gear, all running to the Gateroom. Surrounded, barely able to avoid being trampled, Daniel found himself shoved back into the elevator by the wave of bodies, and heading down to level 28. Caught up in the moment, Daniel ran, too.

The marines lined up opposite the Gate. SG-1 was waiting by the door with yet another ‘Daniel’. This one had long hair and a look of puppy-like innocence in his unnaturally blue eyes that Daniel was sure he’d never had. He ran to join them.

‘Daniel’ blinked and greeted him. “Um… Hi… You didn’t get to the mirror… Uh, sorry… That’s… probably my fault… Sorry… I should have… er… If I’d, uh… been more… Sorry…” He looked at the ground.

This was excruciating. “Why would it be your fault?”

“Well… I, uh… I should have… well… been faster and not so—”

“It wasn’t your fault, okay? Not everything is your fault. There’s no reason to blame yourself.”

“Uh, thanks…” ‘Daniel’ smiled at him shyly and blinked a couple more times.

Walter’s voice came through the speakers. “Receiving SG-7’s IDC”

Daniel heard General Hammond’s voice. “Open the iris!” That was nostalgic…

The iris opened. There was no activity for a moment, then a figure stepped through and took a few steps down the ramp. Her gaze fixed on ‘Daniel’ who seemed mesmerized.

“Hathor.” Oh, no—not a chance. She was not getting her hands on the puppy of an alternate self standing next to him. Hell, no… That would just be… Daniel reached down and pulled ‘Daniel’s’ Beretta from its holster and looked at Teal’c. “She’s a Goa’uld, Teal’c, and if you let her, she’s going to do really bad things.” 

He didn’t bother saying anything to the rest of the team, he didn’t know which of them might be competent this go round. Teal’c always seemed to be relatively normal, and time was of the essence—before she breathed on anyone.

Teal’c nodded and the two of them stepped forward firing, Daniel with the Beretta, Teal’c with his staff weapon. He was dimly aware of voices raised around him, but his entire focus was on Hathor. 

As she fell forward, the gold light in her eyes fading, Daniel moved up the ramp and put his last three bullets into the back of her neck where he knew the Goa’uld was wrapped around her spine. He lowered the gun and let out a deep sigh. Wow… That was cathartic…

Jack ran up the ramp. “What the hell was that, Daniel? Other-Daniel—Gah!” He rubbed a hand over his face. “She was our best chance to find out what happened to SG-7—until you killed her! I don’t usually have to yell at Daniels for being trigger-happy!”

Oops… Jack had more on his mind than Sam and pie this time. “Sorry, Jack, but I knew what Hathor did in my reality. Some things shouldn’t happen once, let alone be repeated—ever—and especially not to… him.” He waved an arm toward the wide-eyed ‘Daniel’. “She can breathe a drug that’s similar to nish'ta—every man on this base would have been in her control, and she would have…” He stopped and looked down at the dead Goa’uld.

Jack’s mouth tightened. He looked at ‘Daniel’ who seemed shocked by the sudden burst of violence. “Bad?”

“Yeah, bad.”

“Okay then. We’ll have to figure something else out. Hammond’s pretty pissed. You better stay in the Gate room. I’ll go talk to him.”

“Thanks, Jack.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I should be thanking you.” Jack made a ‘stay put’ motion and left the room.

Daniel felt a sudden wave of homesickness, not just for his reality, but for a time when Jack had still been leading the team. Not to take anything away from Mitchell—he was good. The team was good, but sometimes… Daniel closed his eyes for a moment. Get a grip—can’t let this place… You killed her. It’s all right… He opened his eyes and went back down the ramp to rejoin the team. 

Teal’c inclined his head with a barely-there smile that reminded him of the Teal’c he had first known all those years ago.

“Good job, Daniel.” Sam gave him a nod and bent her head to check her equipment.

“Sam, you haven’t run into Hathor before? I thought you defeated the Goa’uld?” 

“No, she was a new one. Our timeline is often different than the timelines in other realities. We’ve defeated the System Lords, but there are still occasional appearances of Goa’uld we haven’t encountered—and the ones we’ve killed don’t always stay dead.”

“Ah…I see.”

He turned to Teal’c. “You’ll kill Hathor if she comes back somehow, right, Teal’c?”

“I will, Daniel Jackson—with pleasure.”

“That’s what I thought… Good.”

‘Daniel’ filled him in about the mission that SG-7 had been on when whatever happened to them had occurred. He was going to miss this instance, even if it was a bit odd that his alternate was about as worldly as a six year old—at least he seemed to know what he was doing. Daniel savored the moment of relative normalcy. He knew it wouldn’t last—it had already lasted longer than the other instances. He hoped that Jack could calm his General Hammond down so he could get to the quantum mirror before the next change. It might be a lot worse.

The doors opened and Jack came back into the room, followed by a couple of marines bearing packs and weapons. “Hammond gets it, but he’s still not real happy. He wants you to come with us to retrieve SG-7—then you can go back through the mirror.”

“Okay, I can do that.” He might have gone anyway. He still had plenty of time before he had to start worrying about entropic cascade failure and he was feeling a little protective of this other ‘Daniel’, who seemed a bit simple. Daniel paused for a moment to consider his mental health—this couldn’t be good… 

“Which marine units are we taking?” One of the marines handed him a pack.

“None. It’s just us.” Jack held up a Beretta in a holster, and a P-90, raising his eyebrows inquiringly.

Daniel took both. “We’re going into a possible hostage situation by ourselves? Isn’t that—” He started to question his feeling of normalcy. Jack seemed surprisingly unconcerned about going in potentially outgunned.

“Hammond is sending someone else along—a sort of expert, but not a marine unit.”

The doors opened again and a girl in BDUs entered the room. Daniel’s eyes widened. She had very long blond hair hanging down her back in a completely non-regulation way. Her teeth were blindingly white, and her eyes were… purple. She looked like a sixteen year old Barbie doll. Daniel was pretty sure that there wasn’t enough room in her abdomen for internal organs.

The girl stopped halfway to them and snapped to attention. Perfectly. “Lieutenant Mary-Sue Unvergleichlich, reporting for duty.”

“Unvergleichlich? Really?” Daniel smiled and leaned over to Sam, keeping his eyes on the ‘lieutenant’. “She doesn’t make replicators, does she?”

“Replicators? No! Why would you think that?”

“Well, when we found an android—”

“She’s not an android. That’s ridiculous. Lieutenant Unvergleichlich is a highly valued member of the SGC. She has more degrees than ‘Daniel’ and I put together, Special Forces training, and has single-handedly saved the Earth on several occasions. She’s… amazing!”

Daniel lifted an eyebrow and looked at Sam. “If she’s human, then she’s a kid—no way she’s a lieutenant.” A frighteningly well-developed kid, but he wasn’t going there. “And Special Forces training? I don’t think so…” 

“Really, Daniel, you should know better than anyone that a young person can succeed at the SGC. Look at ‘Daniel’, he’s very young.”

“Sam, that’s crazy—if he’s the same age that I was when I looked sort of like him, then he’s at least thirty-two, and older than you!”

She looked confused, momentarily. “But… No, he’s…” Sam shook her head. “That’s beside the point. Her age isn’t important. Lieutenant Unvergleichlich has proven herself—all the teams are thrilled when she is assigned to them. Everyone just loves her, and she sings like an angel.”

“I’m sure she’s just what every SG team needs...” Oh, she was serious—and glaring at him. Okaaay… That was weird, but what wasn’t weird in this place. He’d go along with it—as long as the lieutenant didn’t start making replicators…

They all blurred again. Damn. This instance hadn’t been so bad. Daniel wondered if emergency situation somehow staved off the excesses of the previous instances. That might explain how they’d managed to do so many of the things that had been accomplished in his reality. If that was the case, this SG-1 might be okay. SG-7 still needed to be rescued.

When the blurring stopped, Jack was still there and ‘Daniel’ was the only one who seemed very different. He had short hair now, and that wide-eyed innocent look was gone. That was probably good. Daniel thought that feeling like he needed to protect himself—well, not himself, but his other self—was not a healthy place to be.

The dialing sequence commenced, with Walter calling out the chevrons as they locked. As he waited for the event horizon to form, He glanced at the rest of the team, trying to gauge their response to the spurious lieutenant. They didn’t seem to find anything about her to be unusual. 

“God speed, SG-1.” Daniel smiled on hearing those words from this realty’s General Hammond. Some things didn’t change. He liked that. The blue light of the open Gate filled the room, and when the MALP showed no Jaffa, they went through to find the lost team.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The world on the other side of the gate was fairly typical. Dense coniferous forest was interspersed with grassy areas like he’d seem on many worlds before. A stone path led to a building a few hundred yards away from the gate. It passed uncomfortably close to a pool of toxic looking green sludge. The sludge was something new.

There was still no sign of any Jaffa patrols, which Daniel found very odd—he would have expected Hathor to have had troops waiting to join her once she’d taken command of the base. It was always possible that she had no troops, and had come to Earth to create a new army, but it seemed odd. SG-7 must have been compromised, or she wouldn’t have the code, but why hadn’t she brought them back through with her? It would have allayed suspicion. Of course, she couldn’t have known that Daniel would be there. Still…

Jack looked around with a grimace. “Great! More trees. It’s always trees. Follow the yellow brick road, kids. ‘Daniel’, don’t go looking for any of your rocks, and don’t touch that green stuff.” He waved them toward the path.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. Why would Jack think— Oh… ‘Daniel’ had a hand out and was moving toward the pool, a glazed look on his face.

He reached out and grabbed the back of his counterpart’s TAC vest. “Bad idea.”

‘Daniel’ blinked his eyes and stopped. “Sorry. It was just so interesting…”

“Interesting… Huh. Okay, but don’t touch it.”

As they started up the path, the lieutenant moved up to walk beside Daniel.

“You don’t want me here, do you?” Her purple eyes glistened as she gazed at him soulfully.

“Uh… Well, I just don’t think this is the right place for kids.” If teenagers belonged on military units, they would have kept Jack’s clone around. That might have been useful—unbearable, but useful. He didn’t even want to think about how annoying they could have been if they teamed up.

“If you knew what I’ve been through, how I’ve suffered, you’d know how amazingly mature I am for my age.” She laid a hand on his arm.

Daniel tried not to flinch away from the hand. There was no obvious threat, but… He still didn’t believe she was human. She didn’t have pores. “It’s not a matter of maturity, it’s—”

She tightened her grip. “You don’t like me, do you? Everyone likes me.”

“It’s… not that I don’t like you. I—”

“We’re meant for each other, you and I… But I understand—really, truly, I do. I have to prove myself, and then you will see the truth. I know you, Daniel Jackson, in a way that no one else ever will.” 

“I don’t see how that’s possible, given that I don’t know you at all.” He pried her hand off his arm. “And what are you—fifteen, sixteen? Seventeen at the most. That’s more than a little too young for someone in their forties, and I’m not just talking legality. That’s just wrong.”

She stood in front of him and raised a hand to stop him. No one seemed to notice her peculiar behavior. “Our souls are one… You doubt me now, but you only reject me because you know, in your heart of hearts, that I’m the only one you can love. I can heal your pain.” A perfect tear ran down her cheek. “You’ll see. Nothing can keep us apart. I’d die for you, Daniel.” 

Oh, wow… Scary Barbie. “That’s not necessary. Really.” Daniel repressed a shudder and pulled ahead of Lieutenant Unvergleichlich. He didn’t actually like having her behind him—it made him nervous, but it was better than talking to her. 

They reached the building and Daniel saw that the entrance door was covered with Linear B script—a mixture of syllabary and logograms.

“Well, this looks Goa’uldy. ‘Daniel’, Carter, check this out with Daniel and Lieutenant Unvergleichlich. Teal’c and I are going to take a walk around the building and see if we can find anything else.”

“Sure, Jack” ‘Daniel’ gave him an absent minded wave. He approached the door. “Linear B—it seems to be a warning. ' _This is the domain of the great Hathor._ Not any more, it isn’t… _The enemies… of… of…_ uh, I can’t—” He frowned and rubbed his forehead.

His translation had been fluid and effortless, but as Lieutenant Unvergleichlich moved to stand beside him, ‘Daniel’ lost focus.

“Don’t worry, ‘Daniel’! I can do it.” Lieutenant Unvergleichlich continued the translation. “ _The enemies our god will be destroyed by their arrogance. They will burn in the fire of the god’s wrath._ ”

“That was great, Mary-Sue. I don’t know what we’d do without you.” ‘Daniel’ took her hand and smiled at her.

“Oh, gosh, ‘Daniel’, it was nothing. I’m just happy to help.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and frowned. Something was off here, something besides the lieutenant’s general weirdness.

“I’m picking up energy readings from this section over here.” Sam ran her scanner across a section of wall to the right of the door. 

“There’s a section of writing here that mentions fire.” Daniel pointed out the line of script on the wall near the location of the energy signature. 

“Carter? You have a way in? This seems to be it—no other entrances.” Jack came around the side of the building with Teal’c at his side. 

Sam examined the area, pulled her knife from its sheath, and pried along a line in the masonry. A thin section of stone fell away revealing a control panel. “Yes, sir. This shouldn’t take long. Teal’c, there’s some kind of booby-trap on this door, some kind of fire.”

“It is not uncommon for such a trap to be laid. The means to disable it will also be in the control panel.”

“Oh, let me help you!” Lieutenant Unvergleichlich stood beside Sam and peered at the panel.

Sam reached into the panel then frowned and dropped her hand. “I… I can’t remember…” She rubbed her forehead. “I knew what to do, but…”

Daniel grabbed the lieutenant by the arm and pulled her away from Sam. “Try it now.”

She looked at the panel again. “That’s odd. This is obvious. I don’t know what happened.” Sam reached into the panel, switched the position of two crystals, and removed a red one. “Almost there.”

“Daniel? What’s going on?” Jack raised his eyebrows.

“It’s your lieutenant, Jack. She’s affecting their minds. ‘Daniel’ forgot how to read simple script as soon as she approached him, and you saw what happened to Sam.”

“I think he’s right, Jack.” ‘Daniel’ was frowning at Lieutenant Unvergleichlich.

“That’s nuts!”

“Well, so’s the obsession with pie, but you guys eat a lot of pie, and not much else. Logic doesn’t seem to be an operative force around here.”

“There’s that. Okay, lieutenant, you step back a bit until we figure this out.” Jack waved her away from the door.

“But… You need me! I want to help!” She tossed back her long, blond hair and clasped her hands.

Daniel pulled her away from the entrance. “No. I don’t know what you are, but I’m pretty sure you’re dangerous.”

“Daniel! You can’t mean that! You must see how much I can help you. I speak forty-eight languages, I’m an expert at quantum physics, I can sing!” 

She started singing—she sounded just like Celine Dion. Daniel didn’t think that was a good thing. He went forward to the entrance. 

Lieutenant Unvergleichlich started to follow him, but ‘Daniel’ put out a hand to hold her back. “Sorry, Mary-Sue.” 

Daniel identified the combination of logograms that he thought would open the door. “Ready, Sam?”

“Getting pushy, Daniel. Rushing Carter is my job.” Jack raised an eyebrow at him. “Carter?”

“Got it, sir.” Sam moved one more crystal and looked at Daniel. “Go ahead. It should be safe.”

“Okay, then…” Daniel pushed the carved symbols and the door slid to the side. He would have felt good about that, except that it revealed two Jaffa, both of whom swung their staff weapons toward him. 

Lieutenant Unvergleichlich launched herself at them and took them apart like she was de-boning chicken. Tossing her hair to one side, she stepped over the bodies of the Jaffa and reached bloody hands toward Daniel. 

He raised his Beretta.

“But I saved you, Daniel.” She raised the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically, leaving a smear, and reached for him again. 

Really, really, scary Barbie… “Well, thanks. I appreciate that, but—” 

There was the sound of a staff weapon firing and the lieutenant staggered forward before collapsing gracefully to the ground. A third Jaffa stood behind her—briefly—before SG-1 opened fire and killed him as efficiently as the lieutenant had killed the first two, if not as quite as gruesomely. 

Daniel crouched down beside Lieutenant Unvergleichlich and felt for a pulse. Nothing, but he didn’t expect one. He felt the back of her neck. “Sometimes it’s really hard not to say ‘I told you so’. There’s a switch on the back of her neck, beneath the skin.” He stood and looked at Jack. “You might be able to repair the damage, but—”

Jack’s blurred and was gone. 

“—I wouldn’t…” It was a moot point. The android was gone, too. Daniel heard a noise behind him and swung around. There was the new instance of SG-1, all dressed in black—Mitchell, Sam, Teal’c, and… himself. This one really looked like him, right down to the new glasses. No wonder they didn’t notice an android or two. It was hard enough just keeping track of who SG-1 was.

Sam attached a small amount of C-4 to a barred door, lit the fuse, and stepped back. There was a flash and a puff of smoke. ‘Daniel’ pulled the door open and SG-7 staggered out.

Mitchell grinned at them. “Hey, there! How you folks doing? All in one piece?”

The major who seemed to be the team leader—Daniel didn’t know him—nodded. “We’re good, a little foggy… That Goa’uld drugged us.” He rubbed a hand across his eyes. “We… We gave her the IDC code. God, Mitchell! Did she—”

“She’s dead—nobody got hurt. We know she used a drug, no one’s blaming you. Not much, anyway. C’mon, let’s get you back to the Gate.”

The team escorted the still shaky members of SG-7 back to the Gate. As the event horizon formed, they came under fire from the forest by a strange mixture of arrows, spears, and staff weapon blasts. They took cover as best they could behind the DHD and the platform on which the Gate stood.

“Go! We’ll cover you.” Mitchell waved SG-7 toward the gate and returned fire on their unknown attackers.

Daniel fired his P-90 toward the unseen force and looked at ‘Daniel’, who was doing the same. “Uh, does it seem like they’re aiming at us? I mean, you and I, in particular.”

“That happens quite a bit.” ‘Daniel’ answered him without looking away from the forest. “Sometimes it’s someone else on the team, but mostly, it’s me. I guess you just get to share the joy, since you’re here. If we’re captured, they also like to beat the crap out of me for no apparent reason. That might be a problem for you, too.”

“Ah... Well, something to look forward to, then…” He fired another burst toward the trees. SG-7 had made it through the gate. Unfortunately, the Gate had shut down while they were fighting—they’d have to dial out again.

‘Daniel’ hunched over the DHD and dialed the address for Earth. Nothing happened. “Sam, we have a problem.”

The barrage of fire from the forest stopped suddenly. The attackers had the advantage of cover while SG-1 was stuck in the open. So what were they doing? Daniel crouched low to the ground and moved away from the platform, in the direction of the trees.

“Jackson! Stick around here. They’re gone.” 

Daniel turned to look at Mitchell, surprised that he wasn’t concerned. “But this doesn’t make sense. They must be—” 

“Nope. They’re just gone. It happens.”

He frowned at Mitchell then went back to the DHD, glancing over his shoulder as he went. Sam and ‘Daniel’ were looking at him sympathetically. 

“It’s best not to think about these things too much.” Sam bent down and opened the access panel at the base of the DHD.

‘Daniel’ nodded. “You just end up obsessing about the holes in the logic.”

“But… The Jaffa inside the building… The attack… None of it makes any sense.”

“True. The Jaffa should have been waiting by the Gate. Hathor should have had SG-7 with her. The attackers could have killed us easily.” ‘Daniel’ nodded again. “You don’t want to think about that. Really.”

Sam reached into the panel and pulled out two large objects. “Well, here’s the problem. Magnets.”

Daniel closed his eyes tightly then looked at them again. “Magnets? Logic issues are one thing but, magnets?”

“Be glad it’s magnets. The effect will dissipate by morning.” She put the objects in her pack.

“So how was SG-7 able to go through?” Daniel’s voice was muffled by the palm covering his face.

Sam shook her head. “You’re still thinking too much, Daniel. You’ll drive yourself crazy. In this case, there is an explanation, though. The force attacking us probably tried to disable the gate just before we arrived, and the effect wasn’t complete. The Gate still had enough power for one short connection.”

Daniel raised his face from his hands. “That’s not an explanation! Even I know that—”

“Ah!” ‘Daniel’ raised a finger. “Thinking—bad, remember?”

“If you folks are done chatting about the nature of our existence, maybe you could give us a hand.” Mitchell was taking equipment off a FRED that had appeared next to the MALP. Teal’c was already setting up a tent.

He really wanted to object to setting up camp right next to the Stargate, out in the open, but he didn’t. Daniel had a feeling that it wouldn’t do any good. Thinking—bad…

Before long, they had the tents set up and a fire built. They heated their MREs with the flameless heaters that came with them, but ‘Daniel’ was making coffee over the fire, and it seemed to be much better coffee than Daniel ever bought. He was looking forward to it, and actually enjoying his MRE. That was a bit unusual, but it had been a very long time since he had eaten anything besides pie. 

They finished the MREs and ‘Daniel’ passed out cups of coffee. Daniel was intensely grateful for that.

As they relaxed around the fire, he couldn’t help but notice that his alternate self seemed a bit down. He couldn’t see a reason for that, they had been unbelievably lucky to have been left alone after the attack, the Gate had no permanent damage, and things were going much better than seemed even remotely plausible.

He leaned toward Sam, who was sitting next to him, and spoke softly. “What’s wrong with ‘Daniel’?”

“Oh, well, we pretend we don’t know, but… you know…” She kept her voice low.

“Know what?” He pulled off his glasses and rubbed at a smudge on one of the lenses.

Sam lifted her eyebrows and gave him a significant look. “You know… General O’Neill.” 

“Jack? What about him?”

“He just misses him.”

Daniel smiled. “I was thinking earlier that I miss Jack being on the team, sometimes.”

Now she was looking at him like he wasn’t quite bright. “No, he misses him.”

He was missing something, too, but it wasn’t Jack. “Sorry, but I don’t understand.”

“Boy, you two are more different than you look.” She frowned at him for a moment. “They’re together.”

“Together… Uh… What do—Oh!” Daniel’s eyes widened. “Oh… I see, uh… Okay, well, I guess that’s… Uh…” He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes. “Ugh!”

“You’re shocked.”

“In the sense of ‘surprised beyond all expectation or imagining’, yes—and I saw something in my mind just then that I really don’t feel all that positive about.” He lowered his hands and looked at her. “I’m okay now. Where am I sleeping? I think maybe I’ve had enough of lifestyles of alternate SG-1s for today.”

She pointed to one of the tents. “We gave you your own. We thought you might need some space. A lot of the alternate Daniels seem to get quite disturbed if they’re here very long. You’re sure you’re alright?”

“Yes... As long as I don’t picture... It’s not that—I mean I’m not… I don’t care if… It’s just that he’s—space is good.” There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t make this worse. He put his glasses back on. “Which watch do you want me to take?” 

“None. We like to keep our usual routine. Thanks for the offer, though.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Daniel drained his mug, handed it to Sam, and went to his tent.

He sat on the sleeping bag, dropped his head to his knees and let out a long sigh. Who were these people? He thought about his SG-1. His friends and all the things he knew about them that just weren’t true here. Things he needed to be true. Things he depended on. He thought about the times that were good, and the times they fought. He thought about all the years, and the things that stayed the same when everything else changed—when things got really bad. 

Tomorrow… Daniel pulled off his boots, climbed into his sleeping bag fully clothed, and thought about home.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

He woke to the sound of yelling. That was never good. He shoved his feet into his boots and ran from the tent holding the zat. 

There was a crowd of villagers; men, women and children. They were dragging ‘Daniel’ away from the fire—and beating the crap out of him, laughing and yelling like it was a party. 

Mitchell came out of a tent with his P-90, but didn’t look like he felt great about firing on kids.

“Mitchell!” Daniel tossed him the zat and moved toward the mob.

Teal’c was throwing villagers aside without regard for age or sex. Sam looked like a combat training video—feet and fists were flying with deadly accuracy. She was ignoring the kids and taking out the adults.

Daniel pulled out his Beretta and fired it into the air a couple of times. “Enough!” There was a moment of silence as the tattered villagers looked at him. “What are you _doing_? And why? This is ridiculous!”

One of the women grinned. “It’s fun—and easy.” 

“Of course it’s easy, you lunatic! There are over twenty of you! How could you possibly think this is fun? You’re hurting someone who has never done you any harm, another human being, for no reason! How is that fun?”

The woman looked confused. “It just is.” She grinned. “It’s a good thing. You will be able to hold his hand and give him comfort—if he doesn’t die. You will become closer than ever before.”

Daniel raised his hands. “That’s okay, you can let him go. I’m only here temporarily, so I don’t need to bond.”

“Yes, you do! Bonding is extremely important.” She illustrated her point by kicking ‘Daniel’ in the ribs—twice.

“Stop that! Do you really think bonding is about hand holding?” Daniel’s voice rose. This was simply unbelievable—even in relation to the other things he’d seen here.

The woman nodded. “Or you can hold him close to save him from freezing to death.”

“It’s quite warm, I don’t think freezing is an option.”

“We can take him somewhere colder.” She gave ‘Daniel’s’ arm a tug. 

“No! That’s not the point!”

One of the children pointed at Daniel. “He looks like the one on the ground.”

A yell went up from the crowd and they swarmed over Daniel before he could fire a shot. The gun went flying—he could only hope that none of the villagers picked it up. They seemed fine with using their hands and feet, though. He was kicked and punched repeatedly. Little tiny hands tried to scratch out his eyes. There were too many of them… He did his best to curl up and shield the important parts, but he wasn’t completely successful, especially after the first few kicks.

When the blows stopped, Daniel didn’t feel a whole lot like moving, but when hands tried to roll him over, he roused himself to fight them off.

“It’s okay, Daniel! It’s Sam. Are you injured?”

“Define ‘injured’...”

“Is there significant damage to your person, Daniel Jackson?”

He heard Teal’c’s voice. Daniel hadn’t bothered to open his eyes much. They hurt. Children have nasty, sharp, little fingernails. He opened them now and saw Sam and Teal’c crouched next to him. “Significant, no. Painful, yes.” He closed his eyes again. How’s ‘Daniel’?”

“About the same as you. He’d be a lot worse off if you hadn’t distracted them.”

“And by ‘distracted them’, you mean ‘let them beat the crap out of me, too’.”

Teal’c nodded. “Indeed.”

Daniel pushed himself into a sitting position, ignoring the queasy feeling. There were villagers littering the ground, zatted, thrown, and kicked silly. He didn’t feel sorry for them at all. 

With Sam’s help, he pushed himself up off the ground and got to his feet. He could have gotten up on his own, he wasn’t that beat up, but it would have hurt more. Daniel thought he’d avoid that.

“Can we leave now? I really want to go home.”

Sam smiled a little. “Teal’c and I will load the FRED. You take it easy.”

“Sure, okay… I’ll just kick back and relax.” Daniel limped over to ‘Daniel’ and Mitchell. He raised an eyebrow at his alternate inquiringly.

“I’m fine.”

“Really? I could have sworn that you got the crap beat out of you. I know I did.”

“It’s an expression.”

“Not for most people. It usually means that everything is good.”

“Everything is good. I’m not dead.”

“Low standards.”

“High resilience.” ‘Daniel’ grunted as Mitchell helped him off the ground.

Mitchell handed Daniel his zat and Beretta. “Help ‘Daniel’ over to the platform, okay?”

‘Daniel’ shook his head. “I can walk. I’m fine.” He looked at Daniel and raised an eyebrow. “Everything is good.”

They walked over to the Gate, sort of, and leaned on the platform. The camp was almost dismantled and packed away. None of the villagers were moving yet. Daniel hoped someone would. He wanted to zat one. “We didn’t get to have coffee. I was looking forward to it.”

“I made a pot, but they knocked it over. It was Kona.”

“It’s good. I usually just buy Nabob.”

‘Daniel’s’ eyebrows rose. “Nabob? You’re not me...”

‘Oh, that’s been established.’ Daniel watched Teal’c tying the load to the FRED and frowned “Can’t you do anything about these changes—the instances?”

“No so far. Everyone is working on it. Even if we could make sure that there is some kind of alternation between the instances that don’t accomplish anything, and the ones that do, it would be an improvement. At least then, so we could do more exploration and try to find a way to stop Adria and her army.” ‘Daniel’ turned to look at him. “When we get back, we’ll probably change right away. That’s usually what happens, so…” He stuck out his hand. “Thanks.”

Daniel shook his hand. “No problem. You’d have done the same.”

“True.” ‘Daniel’ smiled. “At least I’ll be healed after we change. You’re stuck with the bruises.” He reached into his pocket and took out his security card. “Here. You’ll get back to the mirror faster with this. Just leave it with the control device.”

“Won’t that cause you problems?

“Not really. Some of the instances lose a lot of these.”

Daniel nodded, thinking about the first 'Daniel' he had met.

They moved up to the DHD to get out of the way of the FRED, and ‘Daniel’ punched in the glyphs for Earth. This time the Gate worked as it was supposed to, and after explaining their absence, the team—and Daniel—went through without any further problem.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The FRED was barely off the base of the ramp when the team changed again. This was another team with Jack. ‘Daniel’ had short hair and a stack of books, but he wasn’t dropping them.

An SF came forward to take their weapons. Daniel left the zat in his pocket.

Sam looked at them all seriously. “Blue jello. Now.”

Teal’c smiled. “I believe that red jello would be the superior choice.”

“Fruit loops. That’s the way to go.” Jack headed for the door.

‘Daniel’ started to follow then turned back. “Daniel? Do you want something to eat before you go? Coffee?”

“No, but thanks… I really want to get home, and time is starting to be an issue. Take care of yourself, ‘Daniel’.” 

“You, too.” He left the room balancing his books with the grace of an experienced waiter in a crowded restaurant.

Daniel didn’t just want to get home; he wanted to get home desperately. He was glad that the strange focus on food kept the team from paying much attention to him, now that the crisis was over. No more delays—he had the card, he had the device. This time nothing was going to stop him, nothing… 

He ran to the elevator like he was being pursued. In a way, he was. The possibility of staying here another hour horrified him. Running hurt, but Daniel ignored that.

Time seemed to stand still as he waited for the elevator to arrive, tapping the card against his hand, and shifted his feet impatiently. Hurry… The doors opened and he flung himself inside. The keycard was a bit of a problem, because he found that his hand was shaking—just a little. The doors opened on level nineteen—oh, finally…

Daniel ran through the halls toward the small room housing the mirror. He rounded a corner and narrowly avoided running into Jack and Mitchell, who were talking in the center of the hall. “Oh, hi. Thanks for the… hospitality. I’m going back to my universe now.” Looked like the jello thing didn’t work out. That was a short instance…

Jack nodded. “Thanks for your help, Daniel.”

“Jackson. Good job out there.” Mitchell stuck out his hand.

As they shook hands, the now familiar blurring happened again. Now Jack and Mitchell were looking at him in a way he was a hundred percent certain he’d never seen before. It was very unsettling. 

Mitchell was still holding onto his hand. Daniel pulled it away with effort. The two men stepped closer to him—much closer. 

“Uh, guys? What’s going on?”

“Not enough, Jackson. There could be a whole lot more going on, if you want there to be.” 

Mitchell grinned at him, and it was a grin that would have been familiar if it was on Vala’s face, instead of Mitchell’s. Daniel started to have a bad feeling about this—a very, very bad feeling. “No, no… Uh, nothing needs to go on, nothing at all... I’m good, seriously…”

Jack moved even closer. “Oh, I know you are, Daniel—seriously.”

“No! I didn’t mean— That’s not what I— Damn it! Hands off!” 

Oh, crap, no! Daniel reached into his pocket for the zat and aimed it. “I try to be diplomatic—I do! The fact is, I’m really not that good at it. I’ve got a bit of a temper.”

Jack grinned at him. “Oh, c’mon, Danny, you wouldn’t shoot me. Mitchell, maybe—” 

“Hey! What makes you think he’d shoot me?”

Daniel zatted Mitchell. “That, for one.”

“Danny—” 

“And don’t call me ‘Danny’.” He zatted Jack. 

He ran the rest of to the mirror room, flung the door open, and went in. Home, home, home…. Dorothy was right. There’s no place like it. 

Daniel started flipping through realities looking for his own. The mirror showed the place they’d found the mirror, warehouses, Area 51, various places in the SGC where they hadn’t put it. At one point he saw another Daniel Jackson holding the control device with the same intensity that he was. They looked at each other with mutual understanding and commiseration then continued their individual searches.

He saw Jaffa, Ori soldiers, Priors, and replicators. He took heart from the fact that mostly he saw Air Force personnel, scientists, and storage facilities. Finally, he saw Sam fiddling with a control device and Mitchell looking… pissed off. 

Mitchell saw him and yelled something. Sam grabbed a whiteboard and held it up for him to read. It had all their ranks and positions written on it, as well as the designation of the last four planets they’d visited, and what they’d had for lunch in the commissary just before he’d fallen into the mirror. She’d also included the remark he’d made about his chicken sandwich. Home. He put down the control device and touched the mirror. 

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“Welcome back, Jackson! How was the trip?” Mitchell had a big grin on his face. As Daniel started to move away from the mirror, he lifted a hand. “Wait! What did you find on P3C-772 last month—that artifact thingy you were so excited about?”

“Well, it was P3X-472; it was three weeks ago, it was an ushabti, and I had good reason to be excited about it. Given the lack of ritual mummification on Goa’uld worlds, the ushabti represented a—”

Mitchell turned to Sam and slapped her on the back. “It’s Jackson!”

Sam tightened her grip on the control device. “Watch it! We don’t want this getting dropped. I might not be able to fix it next time. Daniel, you look—”

“I figured something must have happened to it when I couldn’t see our reality from the other side. I borrowed their control device.” 

Mitchell’s eyes narrowed—he looked skeptical. “That took this long?”

Uh, oh… What was he going to tell them? There was no way he wanted to… “It’s complicated. So, our device got broken? You fixed it?”

“Vala says you made her drop it. She and Teal’c are waiting in the hall—this room is pretty small, and we didn’t want to risk anyone else getting knocked into the mirror. I think it's fixed. I was just about to test it, but it seems to be functional now.”

“How was it complicated, Jackson?” Mitchell crossed his arms. “What happened? Are you okay? You look a little freaked out—and a lot beat up.”

Daniel rubbed his forehead. This was going to be a problem. “I’m fine, uh, okay… I’m really glad to be back. That reality was quite… different. I got into trouble with some villagers, but I’m fi—not too beat up. There were some issues with getting the control device, but eventually I got it, and I’m back. That’s the important part.”

“Yeah, but what happened?”

“I didn’t learn anything that can help us fight the Ori army or find anything useful. There weren’t any attacks that haven’t happened here. That’s all I’m going to say.”

“Jackson!”

Daniel closed his eyes, let his head drop then looked at Mitchell again. “Look, you know how Teal’c can’t tell us what happened when we were stuck in time?”

“Sure, but—”

“Well, it’s like that.”

“So, you’re protecting us—our reality? From becoming like the one you were in?”

“I’m protecting you from something… You don’t want to know what. I’m not sure that was really an alternate reality. It was too…” Daniel shook his head. 

Sam looked intrigued. “What makes you think—”

“No.” Daniel held up a finger. “No, I’m not saying anything more. Trust me, Sam, you really don’t want to know—I wish I didn’t know, and I’m damn certain that Mitchell doesn’t want to know. You just have to trust me on this.”

“But—”

“I’m not saying another word about this. Ever… I am going to the infirmary, under my own power, and by myself. Then, coffee would be good, food would be good, but there will be absolutely no pie.” With that, he left the room.

“Pie?” Mitchell looked at Sam and frowned, then picked up the phone on the wall. He punched in a number. “Dr. Lam? Hi, it’s Mitchell… Yeah, we got Jackson back. He’s on his way now. Listen, he says he’s alright, but—well, I think maybe you’d better check for a concussion. He looks like he got knocked around pretty good, and I’m thinking he took a bump to the noggin. He’s acting weird… No, I’m sure it’s him. It’s probably nothing, but he’s not talking about it and… Okay, thanks, I appreciate that. Bye.” He hung up the phone and looked at Sam. “He’s never going to tell us, is he?”

“Probably not. When Daniel makes a decision about something, that’s pretty much it.”

“Man, that’s going to drive me crazy.”

“The not knowing, or Daniel and lines in the sand?”

“Both.”

“Daniel must have good reasons for not wanting us to know what happened in the alternate universe. He’s always got good reasons, even when he’s wrong—but that look on his face, when he was on the other side of the mirror? I think maybe he’s not wrong.”

“That ‘deer in the headlights’ look?”

Sam nodded. “I’ve never seen Daniel look like that.”

Mitchell looked at the mirror and thought about that for a moment. “I see your point. I guess maybe I don’t really want to know about something that scares Jackson that much. That’s not something you see everyday—or ever…”

“You know what Teal’c would say.”

“Ours is the only reality of consequence?” Mitchell gave her a grin. “I guess I can live with that.”


End file.
